American rapper Wiz Khalifa has been sentenced to nine months in prison by a Romanian court for smoking cannabis during a live concert, a punishment imposed after judges overturned an earlier financial penalty.
The Constanța Court of Appeal ruled that Khalifa, whose real name is Thomaz Cameron Jibril, must serve the sentence in custody, replacing a previous fine of 3,600 Romanian lei (Tk 1,00,000). The court said his actions were “ostentatious” and risked normalising illegal behaviour, particularly among young audiences.
The case stems from a performance at the ‘Beach, Please!’ festival in the coastal town of Costinești in July 2024, where the rapper was seen smoking a joint on stage. Police briefly detained him after the show, and prosecutors later charged him with possession of so-called “risk drugs” for personal use. Investigators said he had more than 18 grams of cannabis and consumed part of it in front of the crowd.
Khalifa was sentenced in absentia. He is currently in the United States and was performing in California earlier this week. In a social media post, he apologised for offending Romania and said he would not use cannabis on stage again.
Romanian criminologist Vlad Zaha told local media that extradition from the US was unlikely, describing the prison sentence as unusually severe, particularly given the rapper’s international profile and the differing legal status of cannabis in America.
Khalifa, known for hits including Black and Yellow and See You Again, also runs a cannabis-related business. While marijuana is legal in several US states, it remains illegal in Romania and under US federal law.